{"id":1676,"date":"2008-12-14T03:21:45","date_gmt":"2008-12-14T10:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2008-12-14T11:21:13","modified_gmt":"2008-12-14T18:21:13","slug":"hunger-steve-mcqueen-2008-uk-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=1676","title":{"rendered":"Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2008): UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kevin Tran <\/a>. Viewed at The Arc Light in Hollywood, CA.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been several weeks since I last saw Steve McQueen\u2019s Hunger<\/em> <\/a> at the AFI Film Festival, but still, till this day, its images are fresh and vivid in my mind. McQueen (no relation to the icon from the sixties) is an artist by trade who primarily works with photography and film, and taking on his first feature film, he takes a similar approach. Which is fortunate for us, because Hunger is a special kind of film experience that I have never felt before. It feel like the film should be shown on repeat at the Museum of Art, because visually \u2013 it\u2019s that astonishing.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s narrative is entirely non-traditional. There is almost zero story. Essentially, it\u2019s about the true story of the Irish republican hunger strikes from the 1980s and encapsulates the last six weeks of one of their most committed protester and organizer, Bobby Sands, played by Michael Fassbender (best known for his work in the film 300). The majority of the film, we are with these protesters inside a prison where they organize the strike, while planning their hunger strike.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s not McQueen\u2019s goal to tell a straight narrative, we don\u2019t even see Bobby until a third way into the film, but instead he attempts to share an experience. As a filmmaker, his vision is incredibly harsh and brutal. He puts an incredible amount of pain and agony on the screen that rivals films like Salo: 120 Days of Sodomy<\/em> and The Passion of the Christ<\/em>. And it\u2019s done with such breathtaking cinematography that you want and don\u2019t want to look at the image at the same time. The attention to detail and texture, especially when it\u2019s looking at the human body are so haunting, as we see Bobby\u2019s body deteriorating. It\u2019s an amazing physical performance from Fassbender.<\/p>\n

There is a vital scene in Hunger, where Bobby is talking to a catholic priest while he is in prison. The scene is nearly 15 minutes long and where the camera is completely still. It doesn\u2019t cut. The characters don\u2019t move. It doesn\u2019t pan left or right. Everything just stays put. Which doesn\u2019t sound exciting, but it works. It\u2019s like watching a tennis match. And it\u2019s demanding the audience to listen to dialogue and participate in the story. It is one of the most memorable scenes in the film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kevin Tran . Viewed at The Arc Light in Hollywood, CA. It\u2019s been several weeks since I last saw Steve McQueen\u2019s Hunger at the AFI Film Festival, but still, till this day, its images are fresh and vivid in my mind. McQueen (no relation to the icon from the sixties) is an artist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afi-filmfest-2008","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}